Impact of universal service on telecommunications and economic development in emerging economies

This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the Universal Service (US) situation in Serbia, addressing the economic and geographic digital divide for the introduction of broadband services. The authors' main objectives are to study and present a detailed overview of the state of telecom infrastructure and telecom service provisioning in the whole territory of Serbia as well as to recommend basic elements for appropriate broadband access policies for regions as administrative units. The study methodology includes the situation of locations (settlements) without fixed telecom services and locations with low penetration (4 and 10%), with each settlement having more than 50 inhabitants or more than 20 households. To facilitate implementation, the economic strength of the critical settlements and the necessary US funds are estimated, and the relationship between economic and telecommunication development is evaluated on the level of Serbian municipalities. This relationship indicates to policy makers that telecommunication is an important tool for overall development. Special attention is paid to people with disabilities and low-income users. As Serbia belongs to a large class of medium countries with a middle income and moderate telecommunications, this case study and its findings could be used as a model for other emerging economies.